Sensing surface shape by touch

The design and construction of a tactile sensor that has been developed to measure the surface shape of objects held between the fingers of a robot gripper are described. A robotic tactile sensory workcell has been assembled to investigate touch-mediated grasping and object manipulation. This system requires sensors to provide surface profile information for experiments involving object manipulation and shape determination. A piezoresistive tactile sensor originally developed for the workcell proved to be generally unsuitable because its stiff sensing surface gave little surface shape information. A solution was provided by a tactile sensor designed to have a compliant structure.<
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